


Your fault

by Fallenangel_Winchester



Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: Attempt at Humor, Fluff, Frustration, Hallucinations, How Do I Tag, Light Angst, Love Confessions, M/M, Oblivious Tony Stark, POV Stephen Strange, Pining, Tony Stark Has A Heart
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-09-23
Updated: 2020-09-23
Packaged: 2021-03-07 23:08:50
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,024
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26615737
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Fallenangel_Winchester/pseuds/Fallenangel_Winchester
Summary: Stephen gets hit by a spell and hallucinates, leads to unexpected confessions.
Relationships: Tony Stark/Stephen Strange
Comments: 18
Kudos: 149





	Your fault

**Author's Note:**

> This happened because I wanted to write an angry confession, so I did. It's most likely an overused trope but oh well, it wouldn't leave my mind and since I'm trying to get out of a writer's block I figured this was a start. 
> 
> Thanks for reading.   
> Hope you enjoy it.

Of course he was hallucinating, there was no other explanation for why Tony Stark was standing by the window, smiling like he was welcoming him home. He knew himself too well to be able to tell the difference between reality and illusion, the problem was that he felt completely fine. 

“What ?” he said as a reaction to Wong's stares. 

“Are you alright, Strange ? You look like your mind is elsewhere.” 

“I'm fine, only a little bit tired.'' That's where he made a mistake. He could tell by the way Wong raised his eyebrows.

“So the spell hit you a bit harder, are you sure there are no other side effects ?” instead of telling the truth he lied because he wasn't completely sure what was happening to him.

“No side effects, I simply can't focus that's all.” that was partly true.

“Go and get some rest, the books will still be there when you come back.” he was about to argue because he wasn't more mature than a child and refused to do what he had been told to, but the cloak took Wong's side this time.

It wrapped itself around him and pulled him along barely giving him time to put down the book he was holding. He didn't need to see to know that Wong had a smug smile on his face.

_ Traitors, both of them _ he scowled at the cloak which was so indifferent and unaffected by his moods that it was infuriating at times.

Before he fell asleep, still annoyed at himself and the spell, he thought he had imagined Tony's sleeping face in front of him and somehow with that picture on his mind he surrendered himself to his exhaustion.

As luck or bad luck would have it, the incident wasn't one time only. Tony was keeping him company while he was practicing a new spell, eyes shining with pride and curiosity while he snickered whenever Stephen would mess up because of him. 

“Damn it!” he cursed and the rest of the day would be spent without any ghostly interruptions only to end up with a whispered 'sweet dreams' before he fell asleep. He was alone.

“A little bit on the left.” he gritted his teeth in frustration and was about to say something when his eyes met Tony's amused gaze. 

_ Not again _ , he thought, not while he was helping the avengers and he needed to focus on the task at hand.

“Ohh, now you talk too...”he mumbled under his breath, pushed every thought of Tony's eyes out of his head and focused once again. When he was done, he sat on the ground not caring at all about how that would make him look, gently patted the cloak and got startled by the bottle of water that appeared in his line of sight.

“That was quite impressive, Strange, you really nailed the whole powerful magician look with the flapping cloak and the glowing.” without a word he took the bottle and drank half of it in one go. When the coolness of the water began to clear his mind, he realized that he hadn't been hallucinating, Tony was really there. 

_ I'll be damned _

“This...” he flapped his hand at their surroundings “could barely be considered impressive, I'm the sorcerer supreme you know, I don't do tricks.” he simply couldn't resist and by the warmth in his chest at the way Tony rolled his eyes with the spark of curiosity still in his eyes, was a sign that he said the right thing. 

After that it only got worse or better depending on the situation and how it could be seen.

Stephen got caught between illusions and reality, like literally trapped, when he was around Tony he kept noticing new things about him that wouldn't leave his mind. The way his eyes crinkled when he smiled, the fond smile on his face while talking to Peter, how he teased everyone around him, adding extra effort when it came to Stephen and Wong just because he could, to the protectiveness he emitted whenever there were civilians in danger. He kept noticing the not so great things as well, the cracks in Tony's illusions, the ones that almost no one could see or at least they could,,but they didn't know what to do about them. From the way his mind would wander leaving him unfocused, to how his hands shook after a nightmare, Stephen knew that because he had to wake him up for a mission, the way he would reach out for Peter, but stop himself half way when he realized what he had been doing. He needed reassurance as much as everyone and Stephen quickly became involved in it, although Tony could barely keep his mask on when he would look at him unable to hide his struggle when in front of him.

That was the reality, finding out new things about Tony and realizing that slowly he was falling to his doom since it was impossible to resist and to stay away from the brilliant soul that was Tony Stark.

The illusions though, they never faded. He tried everything, but like annoying and unexpected visitors they kept coming back, each time stronger and more real or at least they felt like that. 

He refused to rub his eyes to keep them open and to chase the tiredness away, but it was slowly getting to him. When he lifted his gaze to give himself a break and to make sure that Wong had given up on his mission to get him to sleep, he saw him.

Standing in front of the library door, leaning against the door frame was Tony, his posture was relaxed, he was dressed in comfortable clothes that made him look softer than he had any right to be, but the expression on his face was what caused a wave of longing to crash down on Stephen. It was as if he had come just to check up on him and when he took notice of Stephen's appearance his lips pulled into a frown as he shook his head in disagreement before he pointed his beautiful eyes at him pleading him to listen. 

At first Stephen closed his eyes and tried to ignore the illusion in front of him, knowing exactly what he wanted him to do. He wanted for Stephen to go to bed and take some rest. Stephen pushed away the thought that told him that if Tony was waiting for him in his bed he wouldn't hesitate a second and opened his eyes to glare the hallucination away.

As always it didn't work.

“It's not as if you have a normal sleeping schedule.” he accused, but there was no real heat in his words. It seemed that the illusion of Tony knew that too, because it gave him an apologetic smile before it turned encouraging and pleading at the same time. The cloak gave him an extra push and with a defeated sigh he pushed himself off the floor and followed Tony towards his bedroom. That night he went to bed with the feeling of shimmering fingers carding through his hair as he was lulled into a peaceful sleep. He had no nightmares that night.

He couldn't find the reason why he was hallucinating, but after a while he didn't care. Actually he did care, because Tony's presence both in reality and as an illusion was slowly tearing down his walls. He had never felt so many conflicted emotions for one person and it was turning his life both heaven and hell. The hardest part was the longing that wouldn't leave him no matter what he did. Whenever he tried to skip sleep as much as possible or sleep as little as possible, the illusion of a worried Tony would guilt-trip him into surrendering, he was simply everywhere. It wasn't helping that the man himself was struggling in front of Stephen who didn't know how to offer his help without messing everything up.

“Are you alright Stark ?” he asked after a hard battle when everyone else was too busy with their own injuries to think of anyone else.

“I'm great, thanks for asking.” he replied, but this time his body betrayed him as he swayed on the spot that Stephen had to rush forward to steady him.

_ Oh, Tony _

“Easy...Stark..” he whispered, not releasing him even after the possibility of him falling was non-existent.

“Tony...it's Tony...since you occasionally save my ass, you get the privilege to call me by my name.” he joked in his own way.

“Thanks for the great honor.” he joked in return and was glad that Tony couldn't see the pleased smile on his face at Tony's reaction.

The rest of the day was spent peacefully in the sanctum's library with the illusion of Tony sitting across from him reading something on his tablet.

  
  


“Wow, you look like death warmed over Gandalf. What happened ?” 

Of course it was Tony, the one he hoped not to meet as he rushed to see director Fury, but he wasn't lucky.

“Really ? I haven't noticed.” he replied with a bit of annoyance enough for Tony to drop his teasing smile and to run his gaze over him cataloguing every visible injury.

_ Now it's even worse _

“I can take care of our precious one eyed director, keep him out of your hair until you get yourself together.” he offered and Stephen was about to snap at him that he didn't need anyone's help and that he had to deal with the situation as soon as possible, but then he took notice of the insecurity in Tony's eyes and just like that his rage faded.

“I appreciate the offer, would love to see how you'd manage that, but I have to decline. Besides I think startling the director would be funnier.” he said and smirked at Tony's confused face before he opened a small portal into the director's office and stole his coffee right from in front of his nose before taking a sip and stepping through like he owned the place.

Tony's surprised and delighted chuckle was worth spending an hour explaining to the director why he was right and why they should listen to him.

Every reaction Tony gave got imprinted on his mind that his illusions started reflecting it. Whenever he would return from fighting a multidimensional threat or something equally exhausting, Tony would wait for him, guiding him, shimmering like a ghost, pointing at him, smiling and trying to take care of him even if that only meant imaginary comforting touches and words.

It drove him crazy because whenever he saw the real Tony he could barely resist the urge to return the favor, to hold and comfort, to protect and cheer up, to be there for him as well. The longing was almost crippling, as constant as the ache in his scared fingers, never completely fading away. 

Once again he was rushing, mind furiously working on a very complex spell that took up almost all of his attention and time that he didn't notice Tony's presence right away. 

He was also tired and frustrated and had no time or energy to deal with another hallucination, so he snapped.

“It's your fault! You're everywhere! Everywhere! In every corner with your teasing smiles and sparkling eyes, I can't catch a break.” he took a breath and tried to calm down, but once he started talking he couldn't stop.

“And you're impossibly real and imaginary at the same time...damn it! It's like you appear just to torture me with something I can't ever have and I know I can't have you, so could you please just go...go until I gather enough strength to be able to face you without having to fight the urge to hug you or worse.” the more he talked the less angry he became, he actually felt much better for letting everything out.

“Stephen...” it sounded real and by the surprise on Tony's face, he realized that Tony was actually there and that he wasn't talking to one of his illusions.

_ Oh, crap _


End file.
